THIS COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES AND VIGNETTES MARKED ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S AMERICAN DEBUT AND MADE HIM FAMOUS
When In Our Time was publis...
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Jun 02, 2007
Jenny
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Any review I write here is going to make me sound stupid. Somehow I left it not really having enjoyed it, but having renewed my appreciation for Hemingway's writing (though not necessarily his skills of positioning stories in a collection - even though I'm still not convinced that's the best word to describe this).
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Feb 19, 2010
Eric
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I wish I’d been assigned this in high school. At 17 I was mad for Lorca, and would have loved Hemingway’s gory sportsman’s sketches—
Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman. She had been trying to have her baby for two days. All the old women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke cut of range of the noise she made. She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians followed his father and Uncle George into the shanty. She More...
Inside on a wooden bunk lay a young Indian woman. She had been trying to have her baby for two days. All the old women in the camp had been helping her. The men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark and smoke cut of range of the noise she made. She screamed just as Nick and the two Indians followed his father and Uncle George into the shanty. She More...
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Apr 13, 2009
Brad
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As I am now part of an Ernest Hemingway Short Story book club, I will write reviews of the stories that strike my fancy and add them to the books from whence they came.
Cat in the Rain -- This story represents one of my favourite aspects of Hemingway's work -- his simplicity.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, superfluous in Cat in the Rain. Every word is purposefully placed for its ability to invoke emotion or conjure an image. Reading Cat in the Rain can transport you More...
Cat in the Rain -- This story represents one of my favourite aspects of Hemingway's work -- his simplicity.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, superfluous in Cat in the Rain. Every word is purposefully placed for its ability to invoke emotion or conjure an image. Reading Cat in the Rain can transport you More...
Dec 22, 2010
Pam
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I’ve read a lot of Hemingway but I’ve always stayed away from In Our Time since I’m generally, not a short story fan. Hemingway’s voice, however, does lend itself to exploration through smaller vignettes even though For Whom the Bell Tolls, his longest book, is my true favorite.
I really can’t believe that this was his first published work. I mean, it is truly so, well, him. The most impressive or, really comforting, thing for me about the stories included in In Our Time was the simil More...
I really can’t believe that this was his first published work. I mean, it is truly so, well, him. The most impressive or, really comforting, thing for me about the stories included in In Our Time was the simil More...
Nov 19, 2010
Elizabeth
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Milt's favorite Hemingway book.
"No writer has been more efficiently overshadowed by his imitators than Ernest Hemingway. From the moment he unleashed his stripped-down, declarative sentences on the world, he began breeding entire generations of miniature Hemingways, who latched on to his subtractive style without ever wondering what he'd removed, or why. And his tendency to lapse into self-parody during the latter half of his career didn't help matters. But In Our Time, which Hemi More...
"No writer has been more efficiently overshadowed by his imitators than Ernest Hemingway. From the moment he unleashed his stripped-down, declarative sentences on the world, he began breeding entire generations of miniature Hemingways, who latched on to his subtractive style without ever wondering what he'd removed, or why. And his tendency to lapse into self-parody during the latter half of his career didn't help matters. But In Our Time, which Hemi More...
May 19, 2010
Prerak
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This book or stories was really confusing. The stories I believe were based on the theme of masculinity. All the same chapters as well as the stories had something to do with something manly like going to war, bullfighting, or going fishing. Even when there was a scene in the beginning of the novel of a women giving birth, it was more about the men than anything. Hemingway is a genius. He connected all the stories and chapters to mean something about the war or about masculinity. For example whe
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May 18, 2010
Basia
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Dec 20, 2009
Patrick
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Lawrence reviewed this book of short stories: "It's like smoking a cigarette, a short fast rush. Then you want another." I'm not a smoker, but I get what he's talking about. This is, in my opinion, Hemingway's best writing. The stories, about Nick Anderson, weave together to create a bigger narrative. Many later short story writers followed the pattern. In a way, Hemingway was following Shakespeare, who created a similar effect in his sonnets. You have to read many before a bigger stor
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Nov 10, 2009
Craig
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The first collection of Hemingway's short fiction. If you can read past occasional sentences like: "she was sick the way sick women get sick..." the stories are well crafted and interesting. In this collection, the last two stories "Big-Hearted River I" and Big-Hearted River II" are the best. These Nick Adams stories show the readjustments necessary for a man returning home from war. Hemingway's use of setting is brilliant; his dialogue short, clipped, real. Only the
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Aug 16, 2010
Amber
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Mar 04, 2011
David
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In Our Time is a collection of stories, thematically if not always directly about World War I and its influence on Hemingway and others who experienced it. It is disorienting, uncomfortable, and violent. It took me nearly half of the book to even figure out it was about the War, and that many of the stories were about the same character.
I respect the complexity of the subject, and I appreciate the way he framed the stories. Approaching the unimaginable horror of war through various More...
I respect the complexity of the subject, and I appreciate the way he framed the stories. Approaching the unimaginable horror of war through various More...
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Dec 29, 2011
A.J.
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Reading this book was a part of an exercise in reexamining some of the conclusions I'd hastily drawn about authors over the years. Like most, my introduction to Hemingway came principally from two short stories, "Hills like White Elephants" and "A Clean Well Lighted Place." I still can't fathom why the first is so overwhelmingly popular, or why it cuts in line in front of better Hemingway shorts, but I'm willing to let that one go because fighting the tide is exhausting. I wo
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Jan 10, 2011
It took me awhile to adjust to Hemingway's writing style; it wasn't the staccato sentences he uses, but more the clipped, cold manner in which he expresses emotion, i.e. there is little to none! I also didn't get the juxtaposition of the mini-chapters amid the short stories - there seemed little connection and they felt jarring...until I realized THAT is Hemingway's intent. And then I loved them. I opened to their violence and harshness, and I saw the strength in his writing about such seemin
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Aug 30, 2011
Adrian
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Hemingway's ability to add layer upon layer of a single sentence never ceases to amazes me. To think that this was his first published work is even more astounding. He mastered the art saying a lot with very few words much quicker than the average author, and this collection of short stories is strung together in a fashion that makes it into one seemingly cohesive whole, and the small “chapters” that break up each of the individual pieces keep the book moving at a reasonable pace and keeps thing
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Sep 15, 2010
Kim
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I'm a fan of Hemingway's writing, his work, if not a fan of his principles (I think this might be true of a lot of women readers). That said, I'd never read this short story collection, which was apparently his first in America, although while reading it, I realized I had read many of these stories individually. As always, he counters the terse, biting style of his writing with the depth of his subject matter: violence, tragedy, loss of innocence, and World War I, which had plenty of all three.
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Jun 24, 2011
Cbj
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I think there is a common theme that runs through these short stories. Nearly all of them are about people on a leisurely break from life. And even though they are generally having a good time, the sadness from the approaching return to ordinary life keeps creeping up into their thoughts. Or you could say they are about people experiencing happiness but they are saddened by thoughts that this happiness is only fleeting and sadness is just around the corner.
The stories with the Nick More...
The stories with the Nick More...
Oct 10, 2010
Longfellow
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Life fucks you over. Then it kills you, or at least kills the people you care most about.
This seems to be Hemingway's thesis about life, begun in 1925 with In Our Time (I think Hemingway's first published work) and rarely veered from throughout his career, at least based on the books I've read.
Still, I've only read one Hemingway I didn't enjoy, Across the River and Into the Trees, and In Our Time has the little vignettes between stories that set up an interesting puzzle.
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This seems to be Hemingway's thesis about life, begun in 1925 with In Our Time (I think Hemingway's first published work) and rarely veered from throughout his career, at least based on the books I've read.
Still, I've only read one Hemingway I didn't enjoy, Across the River and Into the Trees, and In Our Time has the little vignettes between stories that set up an interesting puzzle.
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Jun 01, 2009
Rita
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Absolutely awful book. In Our Time is a collection of short stories that *magically* fit together to form an entire whole. Except, none of the stories really go well together, thus, creating this choppy mess of a novella.
Also, I dislike Hemingway as a writer and as a person. Sometimes short, concise sentences work. In fact, sometimes this particular construction can convey a much deeper and more thorough meaning than long, drawn-out descriptions. (Take Toni Morrison, for example More...
Also, I dislike Hemingway as a writer and as a person. Sometimes short, concise sentences work. In fact, sometimes this particular construction can convey a much deeper and more thorough meaning than long, drawn-out descriptions. (Take Toni Morrison, for example More...
May 21, 2010
Tyler
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In our time by Ernest Hemmingway is a book that tells several short stories about American life around world war one. A few stories in particular would be a the stories of Nick Carraway. A young boy in the beginning the stories Nick is a young boy who is learning the ways of his father who is a doctor. But towards the end he grows up and to show this they tell about him breaking up with his girlfriend and even drinking with his brother. These stories establish the motif of growth that I feel
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Dec 04, 2009
Jake
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"In Our Time" is an excellent introduction to Hemingway's short stories. He wrote this book in his middle 20s, and it's just amazing how fully formed his style was at such a young age. The Nick Adams stories in particular have that indelible Hemingway mark— most are simple stories about hunting or fishing or hanging out with his friends or father, but somehow they capture something universal, wise, and tragic. The other works in the book, about some of the things he saw during the f
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Nov 18, 2009
Andrew
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All the elements of a great Hemingway book are here, but "In Our Time" will never be my favourite. For my liking, the stories are just a bit too short and don't give the characters much of a chance to be developed. Sure, Hemingway's style is all about doing so much with so little, but in general there just isn't enough space to really get into all of the stories in this book. The exceptions are the half dozen or so stories about Nick Adams. We follow Nick through much of his life,
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Oct 12, 2010
Lola
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This book is a case study in why books should be taught as books. If I read any of these stories alone in an anthology (or for high school) I'd probably hate them. But the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. I take deep aesthetic pleasure in this kind of structure, where the writer lays the parts down next to each other like Tarot cards and it's the reader's job to make the connections. Maybe I like feeling like the author has assigned me a task, like I'm involved in the experien
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Jan 03, 2010
Mike
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This was a great intro to Hemingway and is even more interesting because these stories were written while EH was in his early 20's. Pretty amazing.
The writing did what great writing should do - it transported me to each of the settings. I really felt that I was right there alongside Nick throughout many of the stories. I also kind of liked how EH used the same character, Nick Adams, as the central character in many of the stories. Although not really connected, the result was that I gre More...
The writing did what great writing should do - it transported me to each of the settings. I really felt that I was right there alongside Nick throughout many of the stories. I also kind of liked how EH used the same character, Nick Adams, as the central character in many of the stories. Although not really connected, the result was that I gre More...
Feb 18, 2010
Leah
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"He watched them holding themselves with their noses into the current, many trout in deep, fast moving water, slightly distorted as he watched far down through the glossy convex surface of the pool, its surface pushing and swelling smooth against the resistance of the log-driven piles of the bridge. At the bottom of the pool were the big trout. Nick did not see them at first. Then he saw them at the bottom of the pool, big trout looking to hold themselves on the gravel bottom in a varying m
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Mar 24, 2009
Kara
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Ah, this book is so great. One of my college professors said that Hemingway's career was unusual in that In Our Time, his first book, was also his best, and they went steadily downhill throughout his career. This is a good book to be called your best. The complexity of emotion hidden in a simplicity of words has not been done better in my reading experience. The stories are diverse and gorgeous. You feel like you know the characters from these 6-word sentences. Super, super, great, excellent wri
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Sep 28, 2011
Becca
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my second hemingway. i've gotta give him credit for creativity. i've never seen a book written like this. the book is organized into loosely related stories before each story is a type of introduction which seems like it doesn't coincide with the story it precedes but by the end of the book we see that they all relate. it's like the intros start at the end and go backward and the stories start in the beginning and end in the end. in all, the book is about nick who is born in rural america g
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Aug 19, 2011
ساعت دو صبح بود که دو تا مجارستانی مغازهی سیگار فروشی نبش خیابان پانزدهم و گراند را خالی کردند. درِویتز و بویل سوار ماشین مدل فورد پلیس از کلانتری خیابان پانزدهم عازم شدند. مجارها داشتند با ماشین استیشن واگنشان از توی کوچه عقب عقبکی بیرون میآمدند که بویل هفتتیرش را کشید و در دم هر دو نفر را زد، اول راننده و بعد نفری را که پشت استیشن بود. درِویتز تا دید هر دو نفر سقط شدهاند ترس برش داشت و گفت: لعنت به تو جیمی، نبایستی این کار رو میکردی، ممکنه تو بد دردسری بیفتیم
بویل گفت: اونا دزدن مگه More...
بویل گفت: اونا دزدن مگه More...
Mar 08, 2011
Matthew
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Italo Calvino once called Hemingway's writing "violent tourism" and I laughed and dismissed Hemingway along with him.
But it's funny how the right circumstances and the right set of an author's work will change your ideas on them completely.
So if you read this book while it is pouring rain and everyone is asleep and you are polishing off a case of Budweiser it will give you a strange feeling of excitement like you want to get up and run around outside, but you re More...
But it's funny how the right circumstances and the right set of an author's work will change your ideas on them completely.
So if you read this book while it is pouring rain and everyone is asleep and you are polishing off a case of Budweiser it will give you a strange feeling of excitement like you want to get up and run around outside, but you re More...
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Dec 26, 2009
Aj
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This book taught me that tiny details, all together, make up big pictures. That's a pretty asinine thing to say. It took reading this book to see just how a whole picture or work can be comprised of scattered and random bits, yet still represent a cohesive vision.
It also taught me that you can say so much without saying anything at all - at least Hemingway does in "Big Two-Hearted River Parts I & II." I don't think anyone can pull off saying nothing yet speaking volumes qu More...
It also taught me that you can say so much without saying anything at all - at least Hemingway does in "Big Two-Hearted River Parts I & II." I don't think anyone can pull off saying nothing yet speaking volumes qu More...
Oct 25, 2008
hypothermya
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I really enjoyed my first exposure to Hemmingway when I read his short story, Hills Like White Elephants. Reading this book has actually lessened my enthusiasm for his writing, despite the fact that there are a few moving short stories in this collection.
Most of the stories are tragic or sad; however some of them I find myself having trouble relating to, because much of the suffering seems to be caused by a general phobia or mistrust of women. I hear that this is typical of Hemmingway More...
Most of the stories are tragic or sad; however some of them I find myself having trouble relating to, because much of the suffering seems to be caused by a general phobia or mistrust of women. I hear that this is typical of Hemmingway More...
